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May 1, 2011

Some April Stats

The Red Sox finished the month of April in last place in the AL East, with an 11-15 record, 5 GB the Yankees.

After starting the season 2-10, Boston got a nine-game run of some of the best starting pitching in the history of the franchise and were on the cusp of .500 (10-11) on April 25. However, the Sox then dropped two of three to Baltimore and lost two straight to the Mariners to erase a lot of the excitement of that 8-1 run.

Boston is 5th in the AL in team OBP (.344) and 9th in slugging (.380, 14 points below the league average). Their 4.12 runs/game also ranks 9th. The team's OPS is 7th at .711 (roughly league average, which is .713).

The team is hitting better with men on base (.262/.344/.414/.758) than with the bases empty (.226/.320/.350/.670). But with RATS, only .212/.301/.310/.612.

Jed Lowrie - .368/.389/.574/.962 - was the hitting star of the first month, leading the team in average and slugging, second in on-base percentage, and third in runs, hits, and total bases. He is 3-for-his-last-17, however.

Kevin Youkilis is batting only .218, but he has been the second most productive hitter on the team, thanks to a .392 on-base percentage (tops on the team and tied for 9th in the AL) and a .487 slugging percentage (second on the team). Yook is creating 6.6 runs per 27 outs, second on the team only to Lowrie.

Adrian Gonzalez (.314/.379/.457/.836; 5th in the AL in hits; .433 in last seven games) and Jacoby Ellsbury (.266/.337/.468/.805; .385 in current nine-game hitting streak) have been heating up at the plate.

Despite Ellsbury's recent surge, the leadoff spot in the order has only a .303 OBP, worse than every other spot in the lineup except #8 and #9.

On the other side, Carl Crawford continues to struggle at the plate (.155/.204/.227/.431), though he has been on base in eight of his last 11 games, and Marco Scutaro is providing plenty of evidence (.189/.283/.226/.510) why Lowrie should be in the lineup every day, and the catching tandem of Jarrod Saltalamacchia (.216/.273/.275/.547) and Jason Varitek (.111/.200/.139/.339) has hit far worse than anyone expected.

Red Sox pitchers have allowed 4.35 runs per game (league average is 4.33). The team's WHIP is 1.29, 5th best in the AL and 2nd best in the AL East (Tampa Bay, 1.19)

Bobby Jenks (12 hits, six 6 walks in 8.1 innings; 2.16 WHIP) and Dan Wheeler (12 hits and eight runs in 8.2 innings) have been disappointing, as has Clay Buchholz (16 walks (two more than Lester in 12 fewer innings) and six home runs allowed in 27 innings).

In nine games, Jonathan Papelbon has been great, with a pitching line of 9.1-7-2-1-12, and a 0.96 WHIP.

6 comments:

This feels really half-assed, though, or maybe jumbled and unconnected in places, because we have a day game today and I had to wait until BRef updated its site with stats from yesterday. Plus it is supposed to rain (afuckinggain) later, so the dogs needed some backyard time while it was still nice out.